Jay Swifa just wants to make his teenage self proud

There are tracks on Palo Santo, the new album from producer/rapper Jay Swifa, that play as full circle moments, Swifa reuniting with former Fly Union confidants Vada Azeem and Iyeball but also reconnecting with some of the spiritual themes that surfaced in his earliest musical forays.

“I come from a spiritual-type family and growing up in the church I used to gospel rap. I mean, I didn’t want to, but my parents were like, ‘If you want to rap, you rap for God,’” Swifa said from his home in Yellow Springs ahead of his Columbus listening party at Rehab Tavern on Saturday, Dec. 20. (The album releases digitally on Monday, Dec. 22.) “But I think since I got out of the church years ago, I came to feel like we’re all spiritual people. And I wanted to infuse that [in the music] more, but not in a corny way. And I mean, I’m 41, bro, and getting older I’m trying to figure out other things to rhyme about.”

These newly birthed ideas surface most cleanly in “Free,” with Swifa tracing his personal evolution over a steady breakbeat and icy layers of synthesizer, rapping, “Working on my mental health/Working on my spiritual self.”

A producer by nature, Swifa said it took him some time to find his voice on the microphone – both in terms of the messaging and the pacing, tone and delivery of his flow, which he described as “a snotty monotone.” “I have that live-in-the-Midwest, very nasally Q-Tip delivery,” he said, and laughed. “And you can hear it.”

While Swifa has worked with the members of Fly Union on past solo projects (Azeem also appeared on the 2021 track “HMU”), it wasn’t always a given the musicians would reunite. Looking back, Swifa said there was a point in time after the celebrated local crew’s dissolution when the members drifted apart, the business fracture extending into their personal relationships. “The breakup, it wasn’t a nice one,” he said. “But business-wise, there was a lot of stuff that kept coming up, and we had to be in communication with one another. … And now, we’re older and there’s more understanding. And the music keeps coming back around. So, if we can all collaborate and keep it peace, that’s what it is for me.”

These reunions provide some of the album’s high points, particularly “Funeral,” a wobbly, deeply felt tag team featuring a cooly incendiary verse from Azeem, who slips effortlessly between braggadocio and political flamethrowing, his lyrical shrapnel hitting everyone from Gov. Mike DeWine to the CPD helicopter unit. “Higher,” in turn, features both Iyeball and Azeem and builds on a camaraderie fostered over decades, the rappers trading verse over a beat that drifts skyward in thick, smoky plumes.

“[Iyeball], for real, he’s one of the only people I can link with where it’s like, oh, shoot, we really kind of make music alike,” Swifa said. “We have this connection where we can be mad at each other for whatever but then we get in the studio and it’s on. And I don’t know if you have a friend like that, where it’s like, whatever happens, we’re good.”

Swifa’s evolution has been helped along by a number of factors, from having become a dad a second time over (his daughter is now 30 months old) to the decision to relocate with his partner from Columbus to Yellow Springs, an environment that introduced a slower pace and a greater sense of introspection that has begun to seep gradually into his music. Given this added space to reflect, Swifa said he came to a realization in recent years that having already navigated the whirlwind of indie label courtship with Fly Union, that world no longer held the same sway over him as it might have once.

“I remember when XL Recordings was kind of courting us – this was when Vada was in the group – and they came to Cleveland and were hanging out for the weekend,” Swifa said. “In hindsight, we were meeting with a lot of labels. We probably met with any indie label you could think of. And it’s funny how that’s not even a thought anymore. … At this point, it’s like I’m just trying to make my 15-year-old self happy. If my 15-year-old self showed up at my house right now … and he saw this studio in the back, he’d be like, ‘That’s what I’m talking about.’ And when it comes to your art, I think we all need to get back to that childlike energy.”